Categories

Meta

Month: February 2015

In life there are many decisions that you need to make no matter what your age is.

And those decisions cover a broad spectrum of topics; everything from health, to family, to friends, to recreation, to…. Well, you get the idea.

The older you get, the more impact even the smallest decisions can have on your life…. And the more you have to think about the impact, the consequences, and the fallout of those decisions.

I’ve had to make one of those decisions recently… Well, really, it was a series of decisions… Each step in that series took me to last night where I closed the book on one particular decision.

I’ve been searching for a career outside of the home. One that pays hourly, has stability, and has room to grow.

I thought I had found one. And I had… If I was twenty years younger.

See, the problem with UPS is this; it’s HARD work. And I’m not one to be afraid of hard work…. but three straight hours of packages of varying sizes and weights coming down a belt at you in a cold warehouse is enough to remind your body that well, you’re not twenty anymore.

Add on to that, the position was only part-time. Okay, fine; I took the job knowing that but I was hoping to grow it into a full-time driver position…

Which could have happened…

In a few years…

Which would have put me up around oh, maybe forty… maybe beyond.

The average age of retirement of a UPS driver is fifty-five. After twenty years of driving service. The reason for that; your body breaks. Even driving isn’t easy on the body.

And I knew that too taking the job.

What I didn’t expect was my daughter to be unhappy.

I knew there would be change…. I knew it would be different… and her amazing sitter tried to make her house as much a place for my Wee to call home as she could… because she’s been there…. her parents worked a lot….

But Wee just wasn’t happy… And who could blame her? I certainly can’t. Never seeing your one parent who is your primary care….

I think it’s different for children to have their parents working odd hours or working a lot when both parents are around, and they don’t work the exact same shift, so there’s always someone there for the kids… But when you’re a single parent, doing it all alone… I think it’s a huge loss for the kids if they only really see you an hour or so a day.

So I’ve handed in my notice… I have just under two weeks left of body-breaking labour at minimum wage…. Thankfully I have a steady supply of Motrin and water and naproxen for bedtime.

And the hunt will resume as it was before; not that it ever really ended; it had just slowed down…

The hunt for that one elusive job where I will fit… and that will fit with my tiny little family….